Le Royal Meridien is a classic example of how IT can be used for competitive advantage in the hospitality industry. From being the first hotel in India to provide wireless Internet access to its customers, to plans of providing PDAs to its butlers, the hotel has truly set an example for others in the industry to follow, says Stanley Glancy

Pradeep Khetwal says that technology has enabled closer interactive relationships with customers and also consolidation of information for better management

Set in the heart of the bustling airport precinct in Mumbai, Le Royal Meridien is constantly looking out for avenues to fulfil its promise to offer its guests a perfect blend of colonial elegance with contemporary technology. And thanks to technology, this internationally acclaimed five-star hotel has been able to establish itself in less than two years since operations began—despite being surrounding by other biggies like The Leela and ITC Grand Maratha. Meridien has a market share of 11 percent currently, compared to the 5-6 percent market share that other hotels in its league have.

“IT is responsible for the high occupancy rate that we enjoy today. IT has enabled us to improve efficiency, cut down on service time, and most importantly, it has helped us to increase customer loyalty,” says Pradeep Khetwal, the systems manager at Le Royal Meridien, Mumbai (LRM). In fact, repeat customers contribute a lion’s share to the 80 percent occupancy rate that the 171-room hotel enjoys on an average throughout the year.

Guest interaction, according to Khetwal, is the most important factor for any hotel. Worldwide, the Le Meridien group has experienced the advantages that IT provides hotels. Hence the management had made a decision to have the entire IT infrastructure in place right from the start. Explains Khetwal, “Internal communication, especially between the front desk, room service, kitchen and customer relationship department is very important in the hotel industry. We have to actually anticipate a customer’s needs and ensure that the time taken to fulfil an order is kept to the bare minimum.”

With this in mind, the hotel management decided to set up a LAN network as part of the first phase of its IT implementation. According to Khetwal, it was important to have this basic network in place before going in for more complex systems. The hotel tied-up with a company called Network Management for implementing Micros Fidelio, the standard application for Le Meridien group of hotels across the country. Micros Fidelio, a software commonly used by hotels across the globe, is a module of the Opera Enterprise Solution (OES), a fully integrated suite of products consisting of modules that can be easily added or expanded from smaller operations, to global multi-branded hotel chain environments. On the hardware front, LRM has rolled out Dell systems throughout the hotel.

LRM has deployed Micros Fidelio basically for its front desk management. The FidelioXpress Front Desk Management System is a full-featured touch-screen property management system (PMS), designed specifically for limited service and can be deployed either for an independent hotel or for a chain of hotels. It provides fast access to front desk functions with a touch-screen graphical user interface. The simple user interface ensures that the requirement for training is kept to a bare minimum.

The application helps the hotel manage front office operations, including property management functions for reservations, cashier, housekeeping, night audit, system set-up and reports. The software also links various other departments, which are equally important for the smooth daily functioning of the hotel. The sales and catering department enables booking and inventory information, shared room types, rate availability grids, and real-time group selling. Fidelio enables the food and beverage department to manage all inventories (including food, beverage, furniture, fittings and engineering), and provides integrated purchasing and a menu-mix calculation function. The engineering section has to ensure that complaints from the customer related to room maintenance are taken care of at the earliest. Other than this, it also manages work requests, labour and material costs, and budget reporting for facility maintenance. The back office is vital as it is here that the entire information processing takes place. It also records front office revenues and statistics on a daily basis.

Check-in
Predicting customers needs requires the bifurcation of information based on the profile of the customer. This makes the check-in process very important for the hotel management.

There are two processes in the front office:

• Direct check-in
• Indirect registration via phone

But both these processes are time consuming. There were various options which had to be filled out, including passport details, services required, guest preferences, etc. And if a large batch of customers checked in at the same time it would add to the waiting period. To solve this problem LRM decided to have a check-in system on each floor depending on the guests’ profile. Says Khetwal, “We have check-in counters at four places, namely, Royal Club, Guest Relationship, High Fliers, and Front Desk. Most of the details are taken down by the butler who receives the guest at the airport on their way to the hotel.” The information is currently delivered over the phone but LRM is planning to provide each butler with wireless PDAs that will be connected directly to the system at the hotel ensuring that all the information is fed into the system in real-time. The hotel also has facilities for room level check-in. The butler assigned to the guest takes down the information and enters it on the computer, which is connected to the front desk via the LAN network. This process has helped the hotel save on service time, ensuring promotion of customer loyalty in the process.

Metrics & Measures
Globally the Le Meridien group is implementing its Metrics & Measures software, which ensures that best business practices are followed. It has not yet been implemented in LRM Mumbai, but will be a few weeks time. The solution is expected to reduce operating costs significantly and also improve customer service, which is the key area for any hotel.

The software will make use of the data gathered through interaction with the hotel staff and figure out the gaps in administration. The loopholes in service delivery and process are also identified by using self-assessments and results of the JD Power customer survey. Thus, it creates more awareness of cross-departmental issues among employees. M&M also calls for further involvement of staff in the functioning of the hotel. This is expected to introduce more accountability across the board.

Online reservation
The LRM Mumbai website, www.leroyalmeridien-mumbai.com, provides information about the group, events, other hotels in the group, packages offered, restaurants, reward programmes and even the cuisine and wine available. The site also offers online reservation facilities. This is also linked to LRMs global online reservation site www.merires.com. The information entered here is collected at the head office and then redirected to the respective branch hotel.

“Our Fortres Global Reservation System is recognised as state-of-the-art,” says Khetwal. Fortres is a 24-hour real-time central reservation system linked to 18 reservations centres worldwide. It is connected to the global distribution systems of leading airlines and around 400,000 travel agencies. Worldwide, Meridien continues to invest nearly $200 million in IT development.

A secure payment gateway is also available on the site to authenticate all online bookings. The central online reservation system enables a person to make online reservations at any of the Meridien hotels through the website. The e-commerce platform is designed to handle all types of credit card transactions. Besides giving information, members can ascertain their loyalty point status and access information pertaining to their transactions. The site even provides a virtual tour of the hotel. It takes the visitor through each section of the hotel, including the various levels and the different speciality restaurants.

WLAN
Prior to the implementation of the WLAN network, LRM had two CAT 5 cables running in each room. There are three telephone lines attached to each CAT 5 cable. But till a few months back Internet connectivity was available only in the guest rooms, the business centre, conference rooms and the library. This hampered mobility, as you couldn’t access the Net in any of the restaurants or near the poolside. Also, wiring the entire hotel was an expensive proposition, as it would mean redoing the interiors. Moreover, the guests still wouldn’t have the freedom to move around the hotel and access the Net.

After a detailed analysis of the problem LRM decided to go wireless. The hotel earmarked a total of Rs 10 lakh for the project. Says Khetwal, “We had already spent a lot on the landline set-up and so we wanted to keep the cost of setting up WLAN as low as possible. We selected Cisco for implementation as Cisco’s solution was compatible across systems. Air & Wireless designed the layout and worked out the specifications for the implementation.” The designing of the layout was very important, as digging up the floor or the walls for laying cables was not economically viable. And the patchwork would not provide the original finish. So the hotel would have to redo the entire interiors.

Says Khetwal, “LRM is the first hotel in the country, which has deployed a wireless network throughout the hotel. The guest now has the advantage of accessing the Net through his notebook no matter where he is placed in the hotel premises.” Guests can avail of a network interface card for a nominal amount of Rs 600 a day. In case, he wants it for a shorter period he can have it for Rs 350 an hour or for Rs 450 for two hours.

The hotel has been able to realise tremendous cost-benefits through the WLAN set-up. Elaborates Khetwal, “The WLAN set-up enabled us to save close to 30-40 percent of the costs compared to what we would have incurred if we had gone in for a landline connection. Every time a room has to be linked to the Net, that room and the rooms surrounding it have to be vacant. Hence, at any given point of time at least five rooms have to be unoccupied, which is not a viable option for the hotel. Also, the cost of accessing the Net via the WLAN is cheaper compared to telephone lines.”

LRM decided to go in for a minimum bandwidth of 512 Kbps, calculating it on the basis of seven concurrent users at any point of time. The hotel used Cisco Aironet 350 access points to set up a Private Area Network. A guest is given a PCMCIA card, which connects directly to his laptop, to access the WLAN. The access points are installed at strategic locations within the premises. Each access point has a 2.2 dB antenna to receive and transmit data at 11 Mpbs. The access points are wired to the proxy server at the backend. The proxy server is connected to a leased line modem through a firewall. The modem in turn is attached to the backbone switch.

Some of the access points are mounted on poles which are placed at the entrance, the Ascot centre side, poolside, and the city side. These access points have two 6 dB antennas for wider coverage. Other access points are placed near the guest rooms.

All the rooms still have CAT 5 cable connectivity. “It is always better to have something on standby in case other systems fails,” says Khewal.

Benefits
IT has enabled LRM to achieve significant improvements in efficiency. Elaborates Khetwal, “Technology has helped us to generate operational efficiencies. It has enabled closer interactive relationships with customers and also consolidation of information for better management. We are applying these in different ways to secure a competitive advantage. We have cut down on service time, and have recorded an increase in guest satisfaction. And most importantly, we have increased our revenues.” The hotel has also optimised on datamining to ensure that repeat customers are given better treatment.

Future Projections
LRM is currently in the process of integrating its reservation system with the customer relationship management (CRM). Says Khetwal, “We are clubbing the two together in order to ensure maximum service benefits to the guest.”

Other than PDAs to the butler, even guests will be provided with PDAs on request. This service will ensure that any request from the guest is sent directly to the concerned department instead of diverting it through the front desk.

LRM also plans to put everything on the Web. Videoconferencing is already in place there. And Khetwal’s latest mission is to promote the idea of offering Net conferencing to guests.